Improvement in water-wheels



PATENT @Prion WILLIAM A. TERRY, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT. I

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER=WHEELS.

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. TERRY, of Bristol, in the county ofHartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Water-Wheels, of ,whichV the following is aspecification:

My invention consists of the peculiar construction, arrangement, andcombination of the parts as hereafter described.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a plan or top view'of awater-wheel and gates embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a side elevationof the same; Fig. 3, a horizontal section of the same on line m w ofFig. 2; Fig. 4, a central vertical section of the. Wheel; Fig. 5, adetached view of parts of the same.

A designates the wheel proper, and B is the shaft. Surrounding the wheelA are the ordinary case C and its chutes a. b designates a rin g-gatedivided into sections, the two smallest of which are each wide enough tocut oft' the water in one chute only, and the larger sections beingslotted immediately opposite or above the guide-curves or chute-walls,and wide enough to out off the water in two or more of said chutes.These sections of the gate b are arranged in pairs on opposite sides ofthe wheel, and connected to each other by the bars c c c, so that eitherpair of the dit'- ferent-sized sections may be operated inde-V ipendently of the other sections. In the drawing (exceptin Fig. 6) thegate b raises and lowers, so as to close the discharge-end of the chutesby sliding across the same. u p

When desired to use only a small amount of water upon the wheel, thebar-c (to which is attached the two smallest sections of the gate b) israised, which will fully open a single chute upon opposite sides of thewheel. As the chutes used are fully opened, the water passing throughthe same will ll the buckets of the wheel, and consequently will benearly as effective in proportion to the amount of water used as if allthe chutes were fully opened at the same time. In order to open twochutes upon opposite sides, the bar c (to which is attached sectionslarge enough to cover two chutes each) may be raised; for three, the barc, having the two largest sections, one upon each end; for four, thebars c and c; for five, the bars c and c, and for six,

the bars c, c', and c, which includes the whole of the gate.

By the arrangement of the gate b in unequal sections, I am enabled toopen any num ber of chutes from one to six pair, with only threeconnectingbars. The number of chutes covered by each pair of sectionswill be varied according to the number of chutes in the.

wheel-case used. By afxin g the two opposite equal sections of gate biirmly upon the rigid Vbar-the said sections being placed at right ofsaid chute-walls, to connect the central andouter portions of the topplate of the wheel, so that a ring-gate may be used with atop plate overthe wheel, which is formed in a single piece, while the chute-walls lillthe slots when the gate is lowered, so that ythe gate, al-` thoughslotted, serves every purpose of a solid ring-gate.

In the drawing the bar c and its sections of the ring gate are raised,while all the others a-re closed. The gate b is placed close to thewheel, or at the inner edge of the wheelcase C, so that when a part orparts ofthe gate are opened, the remaining sections and the ends oftheguides form a continuous wall upon opposite sides of the wheel andprevent the closed chutes from forming a water-chamber, as they would doif the gate was remote from the wheel, as shown in certain wheels inwhich the water plays back and forth into said water-chambers andimpede-s the progress and power of the wheel.

d designates the buckets, which are secured to the disk c, and for thepurpose of adding greater strength to the wheel may be connected at thebottom by the rim f. The wheel A runs upon a step, g, in the ordinarymanner. The buckets d consist of a portion of a hollow sphere. A bucketso formed will have the same curve through all its parts, andwhen takenin any direction. In the drawing, (Figs. 3, 4, and 5,) about one quarterof a sphere is used for each bucket; but a larger portionless thanhalf-may be used if desired. This form is considered the best adapted toobtain the most power, as it gives thc most resistance to the water, andthrows it back in nearly the direct-ion from which it strikes thebuckets; also, that pressure in any direction upon any point inside ofthe bucket will tend to give a forward motion to the wheel.

The buckets d have a circular discharge, the same being formed by theremaining portion ofthe edge of the divided portion ofthe hollow sphere,and may be made larger or smaller by using more or less of the spherefor each bucket. In all cases it is necessary to form the bucket ot'less than half a sphere, as a portion of va hemisphere must be cut awayin order to combine the buckets with the chute-case C, so as to admitthe water therefrom `into the buckets.

1n Fig. 5, C is an edge view of a portion of the wheel A, and D is avertical section ot a portion of the same on a radiant line. In thisfigure h is the mouth or inlet of the bucket, andi is its discharge. Bymaking the dischargeon the edge of the hemisphere, as described, I amenabled to elongate the discharge z', whereby its area may be made aboutequal to the area of the mouth h of the buckets d, and therefore thebuckets will readily discharge all the water they can receive withoutclogging the Water in said buckets.

In most of the ordinary turbine-wheels the gates open the chutessimultaneously, and therefore the amount of water to be discharged uponthe wheel can only be diminished by partially closing each chute, whennone of' them will discharge a sufficient amount ot' water to lill thebuckets, and consequently the water thus used will not yield near thesame proportion ot' power that it does at a full gate.

I claim as my invention- 1. The buckets d, constructed in the form of aportion ot' a hollow sphere, less than half, attached to the crown-plateand the peripheral rim of the wheel, and adapted to receive thewaterfrom the chute-case C, substantially as described.

2. A series of sliding gates, b, arranged singly and in groups, edge toedge, in the form of a circle, so as to constitute the divided ringgateherein shown, in combination with a series of chutes, and operatedsubstantially as described.

3. A chute-case in which part of the chutes open independent of theothers, and when a part only of said chutes are opened for use, thesection of the inner edge ot' the chute-case immediately in advance ofthe open chutes is closed by a solid wall, substantially as describedand shown in Fig. 3.

4. The graduated sections in unequal sizes of the ring-gate b,substantially as and for the purpose described.

5. The arrangement of two opposite equal sections of the gate b, rmlysecured upon the rigid bar c, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

WILLIAM A. TERRY,

lVitnesses:

J AMES SHEPARD, C. A. SHEPARD.

